Christ, here we go again with the broader applications and the types and anti-types and the regular and the de-caffinated. Surely you have something better to do than engage is this utterly futile mental masturbation?
Francois
JoinedPosts by Francois
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12
Sizzling Deep-Fried Weasels!!!
by You Know inthe 69th psalm is known as a messianic psalm, as it foretells the documented experiences of jesus during his execution.
for instance, verse 21 foretells the occasion when jesus was offered gall to drink as he hung from the torture stake.
however, of particular interest, is the fact that verse five says: "o god, you yourself have come to know my foolishness, and from you my own guiltiness has not been hidden.
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Randall Watters exposed
by StiLLinTruth inhello again friends!.
well it was time again for me to take my weekly dose of apostate faeces and see what it tastes like.
decided to check out randy watters this time (we all love him here) and his little testimony on freeminds.org, titled "what happened at bethel in 1980?
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Francois
Hey Still:
Psssssst! Before you attempt to come across in learned debate, first ya gotta master use of the English language. Otherwise, you just come across as a pompous fool...like you do.
Francoise
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23
Is the Organization really free from racism?
by dedalus inone of the claims witnesses like to make is that they are color-blind, that their religion transcends matters of race and culture.
by and large, i think most "apostates" accept this, though it's all too obvious that witnesses are bigots when it comes to all non-members.. but how true is the claim that witnesses escape racial stereotyping?.
i attended an inner-city congregation with mostly black brothers and sisters.
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Francois
Crossroads, could you please restate the first three inches of your post? I don't understand a thing you're saying.
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Here's a belief.........and a question
by Flowerpetal inok......lately at the baptismal talks there is mention of those getting baptized, that from that day on, they have become ordained ministers.
jehovah gives them that ordination.
so, in order for us to be ordained ministers from god, aren't we supposed to receive the holy spirit so that when we go out preaching and teaching to others, the spirit will help us and guide us to those interested individuals?.
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Francois
I personally feel all the convoluted reasoning regarding the holy spirit and when you get it and what it means, etc. is just a perpetuation and extension of JW sophistry.
My opinion is that the holy spirit was poured out upon "all flesh" at Pentecost. "All flesh." Not just those in some room somewhere as the JWs would have it. This spirit of truth has since that time been available to each and every human being - each son and daughter of God the father, hereafter called sons.
We are not "adopted" by God as would be a child not of origin in a particular family, we are directly and unequivocally the children of God by direct spiritual relationship. As stated so beautifully in Romans: All who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God.
As such, God is my father, Jesus is my brother...as are all the angels in the cosmos. And as are all other living, sentient, creatures of freewill dignity where ever in the mighty cosmos they may chance to be.
We are all the children of God. Every son of God shares the fatherhood of God, and God loves each of his creature sons alike. The Father loves each one of us his sons, his children, and that affection is not less than true, holy, divine, unlimited, eternal, and unique--a love bestowed upon this son and upon that son, individually, personally, and exclusively. And such a love utterly eclipses all other facts. Sonship is the supreme relationship of the creature to the Creator.
And that relationship is unimpinged and unlimited by a microminority religious cult led by a dozen or so puny, senile octogenerian false prophets headquarted in the city of Brooklyn, on this speck of dirt called earth. What utter arrogance.
And that's my $0.02.
Francoise
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23
Is the Organization really free from racism?
by dedalus inone of the claims witnesses like to make is that they are color-blind, that their religion transcends matters of race and culture.
by and large, i think most "apostates" accept this, though it's all too obvious that witnesses are bigots when it comes to all non-members.. but how true is the claim that witnesses escape racial stereotyping?.
i attended an inner-city congregation with mostly black brothers and sisters.
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Francois
Here we go with south-bashing again. God, that gets old.
Here in the south, my congregation was integrated into a formerly black congregation (yep, they were segregated by order of the Tower until the mid seventies). Some of those black bros/sisters were the most ferocious racists I've ever seen anywhere. They had their own set of beliefs based on nothing more than their own wishful thinking. For instance, after Armageddon, blacks were going to take over leadership of the planet and the whites would be the servants. After Armageddon no less!!!
I'd also like to point out the the scenes of some of the most violent protests against integration took place OUTSIDE the south: Watts, Racine, Boston, Indianapolis, Gary, Chicago, Detroit, St. Louis just to name a few.
Let the rationalizations begin!!
Francoise
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23
Is the Organization really free from racism?
by dedalus inone of the claims witnesses like to make is that they are color-blind, that their religion transcends matters of race and culture.
by and large, i think most "apostates" accept this, though it's all too obvious that witnesses are bigots when it comes to all non-members.. but how true is the claim that witnesses escape racial stereotyping?.
i attended an inner-city congregation with mostly black brothers and sisters.
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Francois
It may have the appearance of freedom from racism, but big deal. It is rotten to the core with the most egregious elitism in Christendom. Everybody's gotta look down on somebody, and the witnesses look down on everybody. You want that?
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Is there life after JW?
by chrisauld inhi everyone, i'm new to this whole internet thing, i always thought that the internet was 'wrong', i guess.
i was just wandering if anyone else was finding it hard to get on in life after deciding that jw's are not the 'truth'.
does anyone else feel the struggle to find a substitute?
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Francois
"Does anyone else feel the struggle to find a substitute?"
Gawd yes! And this is precisely why so many people go from one cult to another - looking for THE truth. This is the same phenomena that leads many women to hop from one abusive, alcoholic man to another. The problem is inside each of US. It isn't "out there." That's a part of our unreasonable expectation of finding some "big daddy" in the sky, instead of actively and with dedication seeking to find that kingdom of heaven that Jesus said is "within us."
As a cult deprogrammer, I had my clients read several translations of The Tao Te Ching, a classic in Chinese philosophy and a powerful foundation for building a stable and happy, spiritually directed life free of the evil influence of an organization of men.
Enquire within, chrisauld, enquire within.
Francoise
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June1,2001WT QFR Confess to Elders?
by ISP in(entire article).
questions from readers.
in view of jehovahs willingness to forgive sins by the merit of the ransom sacrifice, why is it necessary for christians to confess to the older men in the congregation?.
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Francois
The descriptions of elders in the reply to the reader's question above do not fit any elder I have ever known. The answer contemplates an ideal situation with ideal people performing an ideal function. In real life, elders are the biggest bunch of prying, nosy bastards on earth, seeking titillation with every question. Any decent church would have burned them all long since.
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Emotional Bankruptcy after the Tower
by Esmeralda in"in many ways, poverty is a state of mind.
emma bromon, ~founder of liberty house, a halfway house in new orleans for homeless girls with children, or who are pregnant.. this quote inspired me tonight, on an evening where i certainly needed to feel inspired by something.
it made me question the way that i feel sometimes, that sickening out of control emotion that keeps me awake some nights.. nights like last night.. the feeling that carries over into days like today, .
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Francois
For starters, you have a bright future as a writer. If you could harness that expressive ability of yours to create a work of written art, you might find yourself on Oprah or Letterman being interviewed for your latest best seller. And you can take it from me, I'm a trained journalist and professional editor who has seen lots and lots of garbage in his thirty year career.
As for emotional poverty, try to remember that emotional reactions are choices, and you can choose some other reaction. For there is life after the witnesses, and abundant life at that. It can take a while for you to overcome a lifetime of negative programming from the witnesses, but it's very important to remember and to realize that's what it really is: PROGRAMMING. You are laboring under a set of negative programmed responses instilled in you by the Jay-Dubs. You can rid yourself of that programming. Do you really intend to allow them to control your emotions even after you've rejected their teachings?
Visualize your mind as a series of buttons. Each button is wired up to a negative emotional response, and each time one of those buttons is pushed, out comes an emotional response from you. Now each time you feel a negative emotional reaction coming, visualize yourself disconnecting the wires that go to that button. Repeat over and over until you've got all the buttons not only disconnected, but you've gotten them connected to emotional reactions of YOUR choosing. Now your life is yours, not the JWs by remote control. If you're going to let them control your emotions so thoroughly, you might as well resume going to the meetings and out in service.
Of course, this is just my opinion, but it worked for me when I left the Borg, and I hope it will work for you. A person of your insight and emotional sensitivity deserves, as do we all, to live a life of our own design and making. And then we can all watch you on Oprah.
Best Regards,
Francoise
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9
Just a quick poll
by jelly injehovah's witnesses constitute a cancer on the body of humanity, on the human family.
as such, it should be ripped out root and branch and destroyed.
i just read this post in another thread, and it made a question come up in my mind.
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Francois
Well, I'm the guy who penned that timless prose you quoted in the original post in this thread. To be honest, I have to grudgingly admit that under current interpretations of the first amendment, the JWs have every right to exist. However, I'd like to make a few additional expansions, some in the form of questions.
If the world had known where Hitler would take it, would it have allowed him to exist - even in this country?
If a person does not have a right to yell "FIRE" in a crowded theatre (as the Supreme Court has indeed ruled) because it would panic people and expose them to injury and perhaps death by trampling, then why is a religious cult allowed to yell "ARMAGEDDON" in a crowded society? Or to yell "NO BLOOD" or to engage in other activities that cause gullible people to hurt themselves or others psychologically and emotionally, or to otherwise masquerade as a religion hiding behind the first amendment?
No simple answers since to restrict the JWs would constitute a restriction of all of us. It's too bad, but it seems there is always someone who ruins freedom for all the rest. Remember the rowdy kid who caused all in his class to miss recess?
The best we can do is to work to expose the witnesses for exactly what they are: a dangerous, destructive, divisive cult. Ethically, I don't believe we can be silent. Once it was said to me, "you can't out-publish them." That's no longer true. They are being out-published each and every day on the internet. We can't let up. We must continue exposing them.
Alas, cults will always attract people of a certain psychological makeup. And there's nothing we are able to do about it but to keep informing (warning) the public about this lice on the body of humanity.